Any growing business will want to see their website land on the first page of search engines especially Google. After all, who wouldn’t want to build their online presence?

This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. SEO is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

SEO is one of the many digital strategies you can apply to strengthen your online presence and to reach your potential customers. Here are three ways in which SEO can help your business.

1. It connects you to your target customers
Imagine a potential customer does a web search to look for a kind of product that you’re selling and upon searching, your website lands on the top of the search engine results. When the potential customer clicks on your site and finds the product that they are seeking, that prospect turns into a customer.

How to do it? You can start by picking the right keywords that best describe your product or business. For example, if you’re selling shoes made in Marikina and you want to land on the first page, you can try “Marikina shoes” as a keyword. However, you must check if the keyword receives enough monthly searches, for you to start using it. As a beginner in SEO, it’s best to use the keyword that receives at least 1,000 – 5,000 monthly searches to avoid competition from other established websites. Remember, if the monthly searches for a certain keyword are over 100,000, it’s obvious that you will have stiff competition from other established websites.

To find keywords that work for your business, you can use Google Keyword Planner and Keyword Everywhere, both are free tools that provide an estimated number for any search phrase.

Thus, it is important to examine if your website provides enough information for your potential customers, so they will not leave your website immediately once they visit it.  

2. It makes you an authority in your chosen industry
As you learn to find the right keywords to help your business rank high on search engines, the next step is to write quality content. This is what will make you distinct from other websites. Whether you are writing a blog post, product description for your e-commerce store, or landing page for your business, it should distinguish itself other websites so that your customers or readers will stay on your website.

You must be consistent in producing quality content so that you can eventually position yourself or your business as an industry expert and leader.

3.  It is cost-efficient
Compared to traditional marketing (print, television, radio), SEO is cost-efficient as it primarily targets people who are interested in your products and services. Your website won’t help your business if it doesn’t generate traffic. A sound SEO strategy,  can help you align your content with what your customers are looking for.  With that, you can save money from the costly traditional marketing while increasing your online presence and generating more web traffic.

Learning SEO may seem intimidating in the beginning, but you can understand its terms and ways as you go along.  To help you get started, the following are a series of articles about the fundamentals of SEO:

Is SEO part of your marketing strategy to grow your business? Share your SEO tips in the comments section below.